Little One’s Chat – #SavingProblems

#SavingProbs

For all you people dreaming of owning your own home but are completely failing at saving money, I feel your pain. If you are an impulse buyer like me then I feel your pain even more! It's so hard when the rest of the world is out there enjoying themselves, spending money they don't have and your friends are telling you "come onnnn don't be a bore".

We all have our goals in life, whether it's to own our own home, travel, get married or have children. No matter what point you are in your life you need money to achieve these things and in order to have enough money you need to do one thing. SAVE.

This is the second part of Little One's chat (First Time Buyer Advice) where I interviewed some of my home owner friends, giving you their insight into buying their first property. I didn't intend to do a part two but I'll admit, when we had our 'heat wave' a couple of weeks ago, sunbathing won and I didn't spend enough time planning. It's a good job I took advantage of the sun though because ironically the first 'official' day of summer seemed to be the last day of summer at the same time!

Anyway I digress. This post is all about saving. Saving problems and saving solutions.

I can't even count on my hands the occasions where my attempts at saving have been a complete waste of time! Brainstorming ideas for this post made me reflect on the times over the past few years when I was saving for my own house, but even more recently, saving for my Wedding and completely failing at it. I wanted to share some of my experiences and some tips on how to overcome this brick wall that we all struggle to climb over.

Saving Problem

When you look like a G in your flashy car but keep telling everyone you can't afford a house. AND you live 5 minutes from a train station.

Saving Solution

Stop showing off, get rid of your car for a year and get the train instead.

A friend told me what he spends on his car per year and he drives a Vauxhall Astra.

Finance agreement - £250 per month = £3,000.

Tax - £100

Service & MOT - £250

Insurance - £600

Petrol - £200 per month = £2400

Other, wear and tear / maintenance - £300

Total £6,650 per year!!!

Imagine how much money you'd save if you actually owned an Audi, Mercedes or BMW and got rid of that.

Sourced on Pinterest

Saving Problem

When you decide this year that you are going to save money, instead of going on holiday... but then end up buying a dog instead which was more expensive than a holiday.

But Theo was tooooo cute!

Saving Solution

Pretend you're homeless with your dog on a Friday/ Saturday night and make people feel sorry for you so they give you money.

Sorry that was actually a joke. But I don't understand why so many homeless people have dogs?

Theo!!!!

Saving Problem

When your friends beg you to come out for tea but deep inside you know you really shouldn't. You give in to temptation and order the cheapest thing on the menu and ask for tap water. Your friends order a bottle of wine, starters, the most expensive thing on the menu, desert and suggests "shall we split the bill girls?"

Saving Solution

Don't go out. Or just be open from the beginning that you are saving for x y or z so they don't think you are being stingy. If you are honest they will understand.

Saving Problem

When you go to meet a friend for a coffee instead of dinner because you are trying to save money but she rings you saying she will be 20 minutes late. What do you do? Kill time in Zara and end up spending £200 on nothing.

Saving Solution

Resist the temptation to window shop because there is no such thing as window shopping. If anything... window shopping is the devil on your shoulder and the time when you end up spending the most money.

Saving Problem

When you are really struggling to save money but you have the Sky Sports package on TV, and still find the money and time to watch and play football 5 times a week.

£60 a month playing footy with your friends (if you play 3 times per week)

£40 on average per month at the pub watching football with friends

£25 a month sky sports upgrade per month watching football at home

Total = £125 per month just on football. Sorry that was not a dig at all the men. Just illustrating something which people can probably relate to 🙂

Saving Solution

Realise that there is more to life than football (I'm sat here writing this whilst the EURO 2016 is on the tv!)

I understand the difficulties because I've been there myself. If you think saving for a house is hard when you live with your parents, just you wait until you want to get married or go on holiday and every penny of the money you earn goes on bills, mortgage, cleaning products and food.

I really do know that saving is sooo hard! It make me wonder, how the hell did I used to afford to go out every weekend when I was 17? I somehow managed to buy a new outfit every week, get drunk on a night out until 5am when I worked 16 hours a week in JD sports on £3.22 an hour.

Joking aside...

Saving needs dedication, limitation, motivation and sacrifice if you want to achieve all the things you have ever dreamed of. It is achievable, despite what you may think. You don't need to be rich or in a mega paying job to own a house despite what some people think now. You just need the ability to save and prove to a bank that you can manage your finances.

You just need to knuckle down and don't give into temptation. You will never be able to do the things you want to do if you don't find a way to save money. Unfortunately we live in a material world and if we stop doing the things that everyone else is doing for a period of time, we think people will judge us or look down on us. Take a year out! You can still have fun, just cut back and be a bit more frugal. Who cares if you get called tight? You'll be the one laughing once you own your own home and they still live in Mum and Dad's at the age of 40!

Short term sacrifice = Long term gain

If you have any saving questions or tips to add, please comment below. If you liked this post please SHARE!

If this post offended you in anyway... please don't take it too seriously as it was just meant to be taken with a pinch of salt at the same time as giving some useful tips 😛

3 replies on “Little One’s Chat – #SavingProblems”

I guess the reason that so many homeless people have dogs is the the fact that a dog is a true trusting companion that will remain loyal, not judge, and ask no questions…. but will offer comfort,warmth and unconditional love for nothing more than a few scraps & love ……. all of which you will find when Theo comes into your lives x

Of course Janet, and looking forward to then unconditional love from Theo! You will have to pop by and visit when we get him.

It was only a meant to be taken with a pinch of salt so hopefully you haven’t taken that comment to heart.

I actually think it’s really sad the homeless situation and I wasn’t insinuating that anyone who is homeless and owns a dog is pretending. I was actually taking the mick out of myself with this post because I’m really struggling to save at the moment arghhh!

can’t wait to meet him 😉 I’d love a dog but I’m far too unreliable to be responsible !!!!!
saving is a total nightmare for me also, after christmas I decided to save £2 coins and made a real concerted effort not to ‘dib’ in to them, I managed to get to £42 which came in very handy a couple of weekends ago when the good weather brought about unexpected social events which I hadn’t planned for. I was so pleased with myself Natalie, I now have £4 in my new stash ….. every little helps xxx